end of my stay at St. Petersburg General Duroc and
M. de Chateaugiron appeared at Alexander's court as envoys of
Bonaparte, and I remember hearing the Empress Elisabeth saying to the
Emperor, "When are we to receive the _citizens_?" M. de Chateaugiron
called upon me. I was as polite as in me lay, but that tricoloured
cockade affected me unspeakably. A few days later they both dined at
Princess Galitzin's. At table I found myself next to General Duroc,
who was said to have been one of Napoleon's intimates. He addressed
not a single word to me, and I did likewise with him. The dinner I
speak of gave rise to a rather amusing incident. The Princess's cook,
wholly ignorant of the French Revolution, naturally took these
gentlemen for ambassadors from the King of France. Wishing to honour
them, after much reflection he bethought himself that the lily was the
emblem of France, and accordingly arranged his truffles and fillets
and sweetmeats in that pattern. This so took the guests aback that the
Princess, fearing no doubt she was suspected of a bad joke, called up
the cook, and asked him what all the lilies meant. Said the worthy
soul with an air of proud satisfaction, "I wanted to show Your
Excellency that I knew the proper thing to do on great occasions."

A few days before I said farewell to Berlin the Director-General of
the Academy of Painting most courteously came to me in person with my
diploma as a member of said Academy. The many tokens of good-will
heaped upon me at the Prussian capital and court would assuredly have
kept me longer had my plans not been definitely fixed. Hence, being
resolved to go, I bade good-by to that dear, kind, lovely young Queen,
all unwitting, alas! how few years after I was to be shocked with the
news of her death.

[Illustration: WOMAN PAINTING.]

At starting from Berlin I was threatened with the loss of everything I
owned, and this is how it happened:

My horses were ordered for five o'clock in the morning. My man servant
must have gone to make his adieus to some friends, for he did not
appear, and in Prussia, as every one knows, horses do not wait. I got
up and dressed in a thoroughly sleepy condition. Meanwhile the porter
of my hotel, not seeing my man, took my jewel-case downstairs with my
remaining effects. This jewel-case, which contained all my diamonds
and other ornaments, and my cash--my whole fortune, in fact--I always
had under my feet when travelling. By the greatest luck, a